Man Sent to Prison in Missouri After Attacking Flight Attendant, Trying To Open Plane Door!
A man’s airborne rampage landed him in prison after he tried to storm the cockpit and open the plane’s door at 30,000 feet! 🌐 #News #Missouri #KansasCityMO #Travel
KANSAS CITY, MO – A man was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution to American Airlines after trying to gain entry to the flight deck and open the exit door on a 2022 flight, officials in Missouri said.
Juan Remberto Rivas of California, 52, was sentenced on Wednesday to 19 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $64,434 in restitution to the airline, after pleading guilty in January to one count of interfering with flight crew members and flight attendants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri said.
On Feb. 13, 2022, Rivas was a passenger on board American Airlines flight 1775 which departed Los Angeles, Calif., bound for Washington, D.C., but diverted to Kansas City International Airport in Kansas City, Mo.
Rivas admitted he “knowingly intimidated” a flight attendant, prosecutors said. Rivas went to the front of the plane and argued with the flight attendant. He grabbed a piece of plastic silverware and placed it in his shirt sleeve “to appear to create a shank.”
He also grabbed a small champagne bottle by the neck and attempted to break the bottle. He then attempted to open the flight deck door and an exit door.
Rivas was stopped when a flight attendant struck him in the head with a metal coffee pot. Passengers then helped restrain him for the remainder of the flight.
Upon landing in Kansas City, Rivas assaulted the arresting officers, and “a number of officers were injured in his attempt to flee, resulting in contusions, lacerations, and an injured hand,” prosecutors said.
Officials said Rivas is separately facing a pending charge in Platte County, Mo., for assault against a law enforcement officer.
Written by TMX staff, with additional reporting by Jack and Kitty Norton.
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